Not long ago, Sam Eder saw a hole in the “Buy Local” food movement that needed plugging, so he did.

Grocery stores are open to selling local agricultural products, he figured, but what distributor has the time to contact dozens of small farmers and beg for multiple modest orders of pumpkins and carrots, when a single call to a large farm will do?

So Eder launched Big Wheelbarrow. With an eye toward efficiency, the Austin, Texas-based entrepreneur created software that allows small farmers to quickly upload their inventory into an online bulletin board accessible to wholesalers, effectively filling an information gap in the “buy local” supply chain.

“Farmers send out their weekly inventories, and our technology populates it into a dashboard, allowing buyers to order it more efficiently for their existing suppliers.”

For three months, Eder and other startup founders have refined and expanded their companies under the tutelage of executives from established brands such as St. Paul-based Ecolab and Cargill of Wayzata.

On Monday night came their biggest challenge yet: pitching their concepts to a roomful of potential investors at the Minnesota History Center in under five minutes apiece.

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“I’m pretty nervous, man,” said Eder, with a chuckle on Friday, three days before his debut on the stage.

Based in the Osborn370 building on Wabasha Street — the former Ecolab tower — the “Techstars: Farm to Fork” accelerator aims to do for startup companies what reality contests like NBC’s “The Voice” accomplish for aspiring singers and ABC’s “Shark Tank” do for inventors.

For three months, nine CEOs and their partners get coached in downtown St. Paul by the pros — executive mentors from major companies.

Then, on “Demo Day,” they have five minutes to present their companies to the pros — potential investors and potential major affiliates who might just want to fund them, expand them and keep working with them indefinitely.

Overall, at least 45 Techstars accelerators operate across the globe, with events such as Startup Weeks and Startup Weekends in 150 countries. The “Techstars: Farm to Fork” accelerator is heavily funded by Ecolab and Cargill.

Brett Bohl, managing director of the Farm to Fork accelerator, told a packed crowd at the History Center on Monday night that of the 115 mentors in the program, about half of them came from the two companies.

He added, “90 percent of companies that have gone through the Techstars program are either still operating or have (been acquired).”

Ecolab CEO Doug Baker and Cargill CEO David MacLennan both took the stage wearing Techstars hoodies, to widespread chuckles.

“There’s a war for talent,” MacLennan told the crowd. “(Technology workers) want to go to Boston, San Francisco. … (But) this is a perfect place to be.”

Both CEOs said that with world populations increasing, there’s increasing demand for foods that serve the middle-class palate, which will put increasing pressure on land and water supplies. Innovative companies can help ease some of the impact — but competition for top talent will be intense.

“There’s more people coming in the world, and they want to eat healthier foods,” MacLennan said. “Developing economies, they want to eat more meat, chicken, fish, turkey, but how do we do that in a way that doesn’t tax the natural food economy? … Half the soybeans grown in Minnesota go to China to feed the livestock.”

Added Baker, “New technologies, new innovations are going to be required to meet these demands. … If we are going to continue to have a great vibrant economy we need a startup community, because that’s where the next Fortune 500 company is going to come from.”

But Techstars isn’t just a training ground — it’s also a major funder.

The Techstars Ventures Capital Fund has $265 million under management, with investments in the on-demand car-sharing network Uber, the cloud communications company Twilio and other startups that rolled out during previous accelerators or were established by Techstars alumni.

Monday night’s “Demo Day” debut — which coincides with the first full day of Twin Cities Startup Week and Grow North’s Food-Ag-Ideas Week — isn’t the end for these entrepreneurs. They’ve all been invited to remain in downtown St. Paul for up to another year to meet with investors and refine their business strategies.

Meanwhile, noted Harrell, the participants are frequently reminded that “Techstars is for life,” in that they’ll have lifetime access to a network of potential mentors and funding partners.

“It’s a big day,” Harrell said. “It starts a new chapter. This particular part of the journey is over, but it’s a marathon.”

Traive, a farm lending company that was started in Brazil, plans to stick around the Twin Cities. So does Bangalore, India-based Spoonshot, formerly known as Dishq, which uses artificial intelligence and food science to predict consumer food trends.

“I’ll by flying back and forth,” said Kishan Vasani, co-founder and CEO of Spoonshot. “We’re going to be hiring here to manage the relationships with our customers in the Twin Cities. St. Paul is our U.S. base.”

Frederick Melo was once sued by a reader for $2 million but kept on writing. He came to the Pioneer Press in 2005 and brings a testy East Coast attitude to St. Paul beat reporting. He spent nearly six years covering crime in the Dakota County courts before switching focus to the St. Paul mayor's office, city council, and all things neighborhood-related, from the city's churches to its parks and light rail. A resident of Hamline-Midway, he is married to a Frogtown woman. He Tweets with manic intensity at @FrederickMelo.

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